Azerbaijan, Baku, 11 January /корр. Trend С.Алиев/ The Russian gas monopolist Gazprom does not confirm or does not refute information on Company's wish to purchase gas being produced from Azerbaijani field of Shah Deniz to fill up the South Stream Pipeline and holding talks on this issue, the Head of Section for Work with Foreign and Regional Media of Gazprom's Department for Information Policy, Denis Ignatev, reported to Trend on 11 January.
The Russian media reports with reference to Bloomberg that Gazprom has been willing to purchase gas from Shah Deniz since Stage 2 of the project development. the Executive Vice President of StatoilHydro, Peter Mellbue, reported to the US agency, Bloomberg reports. "We held discussions with Gazprom and they showed certain interest," Bloomberg reported.
The contract on the development of "Shahdaniz" field was signed in 1996 in Baku. The parties to the project are: BP (the operator - 25,5%), Statoil - 25,5%, SOCAR, LUKoil, NICO and TOTAL- both 10%, and TPAO - 9%. The gas production in the field commenced in December 2006. Currently the gas from the Shah Deniz field is being delivered to Turkey and Georgia via South Caucasus Pipeline. Azerbaijan also purchases gas from the field. Currently four wells on the Shah Deniz field are working in the field with nearly 2.2mln cu.m of gas per day. The fourth well is planned to be put into operation. Two more wells are envisaged to be put into operation next year.